Stockton Concert Band goes to Broadway at Tuesday's show

Sunday

May 5, 2019 at 2:58 PM

Lori Gilbert Record Staff Writer @LoriGRecord

Kate Bautch’s singing performances are a bit limited these days, what with being a voice teacher at San Joaquin Delta College and pursing master’s and doctoral degrees at University of the Pacific in music therapy with an eye toward researching the effects of music on emotions.

When she bumped into Delta colleague Art Holton on campus and he asked her to be a part of the Stockton Concert Band’s Stockton Goes to Broadway show at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the college’s Atherton Auditorium, she didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“He asked if I wanted to do a couple numbers and I said, ‘of course,’ ” Bautch said. “He gave me some options and said, ‘choose.’ ”

What she chose was “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables” and “You Can’t Take That Away From Me,” a George Gershwin song that actually was a part of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film, “Shall We Dance.”

“It’s not Broadway, but it’s wonderful and we do a jazzy version,” Holton said.

And while Bautch’s favorite music is classical — she earned her music degree from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and her master’s in vocal performance at Northern Colorado State — “I enjoy doing musical theater, jazz, anything,” she said.

Holton selected Broadway musicals as the theme for the season finale, the 35th for the Stockton Concert Band he founded while teaching at Lincoln High School.

“Last year, we did a Jewish theme. We called it Klezmer Carnival,” Holton said. “It challenges me as a music teacher and band director and gives everybody a chance to support part of the community. This year, I chose Broadway show tunes, and next year, I’ve already decided on Viva Mexico. We’ll have folklorico dancers on stage with us and we’ll celebrate the Mexican Americans in town.”

Tuesday’s show, however, celebrates great musical theater, and while there are classics — songs from “Man of La Mancha” and a medley from Richard Rodgers — Holton said he looked for more contemporary work.

“We’ve done a Broadway thing before, and I threw in some older songs everyone knows, but I wanted to get more updated things,” Holton said.

He’ll begin with “Opening Night on Broadway,” an arrangement that features “Springtime for Hitler” (“The Producers”), The “Avenue Q” Theme, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (“Spamalot”), “For Good” (“Wicked”) and “Circle of Life” (“The Lion King”).

He also included a medley from “Beauty and the Beast” and songs from “Dear Evan Hansen,” which just left Broadway.

“It took the band a while to get used to it,” Holton said. “The hadn’t heard or seen it.”

The band will end with a medley from “The Music Man,” joined by Franklin High School’s Symphonic Band under the direction of Jacqueline Hairston.

Franklin’s musicians will perform in the first half of the show.

“I always try to bring local high schools, sometimes junior high schools, because they get so few opportunities to play at Atherton,” Holton said. “Jacqueline Hairston at Franklin is working hard to get that program back on its feet and doing good things. She’s a member of the Stockton Concert Band.”

She’s joined by many local music educators, who teach by day and perform where they can.

Franklin’s program is not made up of Broadway music. That’s for the second act and includes “I Dreamed a Dream,” from Holton’s favorite musical. It’s one of Bautch’s favorites, too.

“I grew up in the era of Les Mis and have been singing ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ since I was 10 years old with a hair brush in my hand (as a microphone),” said Bautch, 37, a native of Moline, Illinois.

She started taking professional lessons in high school — when her voice had developed enough to safely train — she said, and dreamed a dream of being a professional singer. She and her husband ended up in Stockton — “We kept moving west until we reached the ocean,” she said – where she teaches voice and he teaches stagecraft at Delta and does the technical work on the drama department’s productions.

There’s no ocean in Stockton, but it has a university named for one where she’s getting advanced degrees, and it has a stage where she can sing and a community band to back her up.